Chapter 3: The Group

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Warning: child abuse and bullying (mostly mentions of it), some dark themes, too much fluffiness sometimes. A real rollercoaster (or, at least, it's supposed to be).

Author's note:

Wow, guys! I'm impressed with all the follows and favorites, not to mentions the reviews! They made my day, really. Thanks for all the kindness :)

Enjoy the chapter.

(This chapter's quote made me laugh. Some people are just so creative.)

All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy

By Amaryllis D. Namikaze

Chapter III:

The Group

"Friends are like boobs – some are big, some are small, some are real, some are fake."

Anonymous

"Class, this is Namikaze Kumi – he's going to be with us from now on," the teacher, Saki-sensei, explained to a group of thirty children or so.

I looked down, avoiding their curious eyes. For starters, I was too small to be a eight-year-old – heck, I was too small to be a seven-year-old, like some children were according to Ren's explanation. And I was entering in the second period of the school year.

"You can sit beside Kihito-kun, Kumi-chan," Saki-sensei indicated a pretty reserved boy sitting on the far left corner of the classroom. Nodding in thanks, I made my way to the vacant chair. Ren waved excited from his chair beside a sleeping Chitarō.

As the teacher started on his lesson – apparently, about the First Shinobi War, a topic that Minato had already discussed in length with me – I discreetly observed the boy on my right. He wasn't as tall as Ren or Chitarō, but wasn't short enough to be considered below average. His appearance was so common in the Fire Country – dark brown hair and eyes – that it took me awhile until I finally realized why he looked especially familiar: his face was just like Konohamaru's. Well, it seems the mysterious father made himself known.

"It's rude to stare, you know," the boy, at last identified as Konohamaru's Dad, commented nonchalantly. He didn't look particularly bothered, despite his words.

"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry," I apologized, sure that my cheeks were warming against my will. Goodness, that's what solitude causes to your development: a spluttering mess.

He shrugged, "I'm used to it, since, you know, Dad and all."

I wondered if you know was a tick of him. I nodded, only associating who his dad was – the Sandaime, of course – after doing so. I was being slow today; lucky me Minato wasn't in my classroom or he would be having a field day with my clumsiness. He always found it cute how I just shut other people out, even if my parents worried about it.

"Name's Sarutobi Kihito, by the way," the brown-haired boy extended his hand and I shook it politely. He looked nice enough for me, which made me calmer.

I turned my attention back to Saki-sensei and refrained from sighing when I noticed how he was still explaining the consequences of the First Shinobi War. I knew all this already – not only because I had started reading books in this life as soon as I reached a reasonable enough age, but also because Minato never shut up about, well, anything. My older brother was a bookworm, just not of the same kind I was.

It looked like I was in for very, very boring years.

By lunch time, I discovered that Ren was right about my enrollment on the Academy being no problem despite my young age. The first year in the Shinobi School had no physical training whatsoever, being dedicated to writing skills, math, history and geography lessons. The closer we came to being taught about how to mold chakra was through theoretical exercises that made me ponder about their usefulness at all – they made me comprehend what this energy inside me was, but did they really think that children would understand it without feeling it? I was sure the only reason I understood as well as I did was because of my capacity to control it.

In the end, however, I wanted to do what I told Minato: protect him and my loved ones. I endured the most boring hours since my being here and tried not to yawn every five minutes. If there was one thing I could be confident about myself was my capacity to read and learn.

"You looked as bored as Chita," Ren said as soon as he sat on a chair in front of me during lunchtime.

"I feel as bored as Chitarō," I replied with no bite.

Today had been my turn to make the bentos and I had taken comfort in making my favorite quick-to-make foods: salt rice balls (or onigiri), octopus-filled takoyaki and – just to feel safe, my favorite thing from my very British old life – fish and chips. I remember when I deemed myself skilled enough in the art of cooking (in this life, I mean) to not seem weird that I was trying to make my own dishes. Of course fish and chips already existed, for me, but dear, it had been funny to see Minato's creeped out face the first time.

Funnily enough, I noticed Ren eyeing said food with confusion.

"What's this?" It would be a rude question if he wasn't a kid.

Chitarō's nose twitched in an appreciative way, "Smells fishy."

"What have I told you about being tactless?" Ren scolded, even though he had been just as tactless two seconds earlier. Children. Go figure.

I laughed.

"It's okay, Ren. Chitarō is right – it is fish."

The Nara boy frowned.

"You can call me Chita too," he decided, before promptly laying his head on the table. Wow. He was worse than Shikamaru. That took some mad skills.

Ren began munching on his own rice balls after briefly poking Chitarō's side and forcing him to eat. I couldn't help but notice how much of a mother-hen he was.

"Are you following the lesson well enough, Kumi-chan?" He asked not unkindly. I suppose I should be annoyed by the –chan, but I couldn't bring myself to call him on it. Not to mention that, by now, most of the class probably thought I was a girl, anyway.

I nodded, struggling with the disposable chopsticks, just to discover that this pair was defective. I accepted Chitarō's ones with a smile and observed as Ren scolded him for not eating.

"It seems easy for now," I finally answered. "Onii-chan doesn't stop talking about his lessons, either way."

Chitarō rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like 'Typical Minato'. To make us even for the chopsticks, I presented a takoyaki just in front of his mouth, so he wouldn't have to lift his head at all from the table. He grinned, accepting the treat.

It was Ren's turn to roll his eyes at us.

A comfortable silence descended on our table as we kept eating. I took this time as an opportunity to look around the classroom. Most kids ate outside and those who chose not to were sitting in small groups. A small girl – not quite the same tall as I, but closer than anybody else nevertheless – was sitting by the window alone.

"Who is she?" I whispered, indicating with my head the person I was talking about. My blond hair, now in much looser baby ringlets than in the past, flew away from my face as I jutted my chin in her direction.

"Hm?" Chitarō raised his head a little. "Ah. That's Uchiha Mikoto."

I blinked. Sasuke's mother? She looked lovely in the Naruto verse. I couldn't fathom why she would be sitting alone.

"She's the daughter of the Clan Head," Ren explained, observing my creasing forehead. "But not the Heir – that's her younger brother. He's still too young to be here, though."

"Why is she alone?"

Was it arrogant of me to worry about her? Probably, yes. Until one week ago, I was the one with no friends and I'm sure that if Chitarō and Ren hadn't come to me that day on the park, it would remain so. Minato was my older brother, but to have friends, well, that had to come from me and me alone.

"The non-clan kids are usually too scared," Ren answered and there was a different tone in his voice I didn't expect.

I turned my eyes from Mikoto to my friend. His usually cheerful deep-forest green eyes were shadowed. I wanted to extend my hand, perhaps pat his head, but I refrained from doing so. I wasn't confident enough about it. Not yet.

Either way, Chitarō flicked his brow affectionately.

"Idiot, don't think too hard or you might explode."

Two mother-hens, then.

I had thought about questioning Minato about what Ren could have meant with his icy comment. I gave up at the last minute, however. I wanted to discover it by myself and, frankly, my older brother was getting busier and busier. It made me lonely, yes, but Chitarō and Ren filled his blank if only a little.

My answer presented itself a few days later, while I was walking to the Academy.

It was sunny – like it always was during summer – and people were chatting animatedly in the streets. Minato had gone earlier, apparently there was a teammate he wanted to talk to, and I was left to my own devices when Mom went to work.

"I'll come back earlier today, alright, sweetie?" She kissed the crown of my head and my mouth turned up in a soft smile.

"Yes!" She laughed at my unexpected enthusiasm and bade goodbye.

I gathered my school bag and closed the door behind me. On the Academy's patio, that's where I noticed it.

Mikoto was sitting by herself in the swing, as usual. A couple of civilian kids from my class – Rin? Kin? Gin? – were running to and fro in what appeared to be a game of tag. Good two meters before the small Uchiha, however, one of them tripped and fell just in front of her.

"S-Sorry!" the boy – Jin, I suddenly remembered – was almost in tears.

Mikoto reached out with her pale hand to help him get up, but Jin scrambled back in panic.

"Sorry, Uchiha-sama!" And he took off running with his tag-friend.

Mikoto's hopeful eyes dulled and she kicked a rock by her feet. I frowned. Why were they afraid of her? But as the day stretched, I noticed other small things. They weren't afraid of only her. The civilian kids gave all the clan kids a wide berth. There was Inuzuka Tsume in my class – Kiba's mother surely made herself known – Sarutobi Kihito and my own friends, Ren and Chitarō. Truthfully enough, they were always by themselves.

The non-clan kids are usually too scared, Ren had said. Scared of what? The clan kids? Why would they be scared of other kids? I had been bullied for years, but, in the end, I'd never comprehend why someone would ignore or bully another person. I knew how painful it was to be lonely and would never wish it on anybody.

Which is exactly why, the very next day, I mustered all the courage I could gather and walked toward Mikoto. It may sound pathetic, but my hands were shaking.

Would she think me weird? All the children I had tried to befriend in my old life thought so. I was 'the ugly', the 'creepy', the 'face freak'. Sister herself told me how horrible was my appearance. I had loved her, though, because she cared enough to talk to me not shouting. I was pathetic.

Sighing, I felt more than saw the way my golden curls repositioned themselves over my head with my sigh. It was comforting, if only to remind me of my new appearance, one much more pleasing to the eye.

"Hello," I greeted the Uchiha girl. "Can I sit here?"

Ren and Chitaro's strategy sounded like a good one. I made sure that my Can I sit here? was softly said, which contributed to my even girly features.

Mikoto looked up and I finally got a good glimpse of her face. She was delicate – there was no other word. Her eyes were two round orbs of onyx and long eyelashes blinked owlishly at me. Pale skin, pitch-black hair and cupid bow mouth.

I fear for humanity if they think that such an innocent looking girl is to be scared of.

"S-Sure," she stammered much like I had done three weeks ago.

I extend my hand for her to shake – taking a leaf out of Kihito's book – and introduced myself, "I'm Namikaze Kumi. It's nice to meet you."

There. I said it. Hands, you can't stop trembling now. Her eyes darted to my hand, smaller than ever hers, and she took it. Stomach, you may settle down too.

"Uchiha Mi-Mikoto. It's nice to meet you too," she smiled and I saw a dimple on her left cheek. How cute.

"Kumi-chan!" I heard Ren's voice practically sing from the doorway. He searched the classroom and grinned when he saw me sitting close to the window. Chitarō followed him dutifully as always. "Good morning! You won't believe what Tou-san told me!"

Just like that, our trio became a quartet. When Kihito arrived, I grabed his hand and forced him to leave his corner. Inuzuka Tsume was much easier to convince. By the end of the day, our quartet became a group and we were all satisfied by the arrangement.

The civilian kids' fear was never mentioned again and I didn't ask them about it.

It crossed my mind from time to time, though.

The funny thing about being a girly boy is: it isn't funny.

No, really. During my babyhood and toddlerhood, many adults complimented my parents on my – 'Very, very cute!' – appearance. The older I got, however, the more girly I became. It must be the long hair.

This was proved during a rare rainy day. It was weekend and my new group of friends had decided to gather in Chitarō's house. We hadn't planned on raining, so we didn't have much to do outside, but none of us were really bothered by it.

Tsume was shuffling a deck of cards and showing off to an impressed Mikoto and almost bored Kihito. Chitarō was doing what he did best – sleep – and Ren was busying himself with snacks prepared by the Nara boy's mother, Suzume. I was sketching their faces on a random paper and, I must say, it was pretty good for a person with no artistic talent in the past life whatsoever.

"Tadaima," someone greeted from the door. It sounded young enough not to be an adult, but too young to be our age. I didn't have to guess, though, because the person poked his head in the living room a second later.

Nara Shikaku looked a lot like Chitarō and Shikamaru – or better yet, they looked a lot like him. His hair, however, was pitch-black in contrast to his son's dark brown and his eyes were much sharper than Chitarō's.

"Oh, new friends, Chita?" He smirked and I was surprised. All the times he had appeared on screen, his character looked as lazy as his future son. "Nice to see you working."

Ren waved enthusiastically, "Were you at my house, Shika?"

Shikaku nodded and observed our young faces, obviously trying to recognize us. Chitarō rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"You could just ask for their names, Aniki, there's no need to go full genius on us," he commented off-handedly. I stifled a laugh and Chitarō's hand fell over my head, patting it fondly.

"Inuzuka Tsume is the name!" Said person introduced herself, jumping up and making a peace sign. It hadn't taken more than a few minutes to discover how energetic the Inuzuka heir was. In a way, Ren and she were the ones that got our group moving.

"Nice to meet you, Nara-sempai – I am Uchiha Mikoto," the small Uchiha said, bowing politely. Trust Mikoto to be the good one of us.

Shikaku waved her formality away, "Shikaku is fine – honorifics are so troublesome."

I blinked at the word.

"Sarutobi Kihito," was all what the Sandaime's son said. Typical Kihito. If his eyes and hair were a few shades darker, you'd think he was an Uchiha with his attitude.

Belatedly realizing that it was my turn when Shikaku turned his eyes to me, I spoked up, "Uh, Namikaze K-Kumi."

I had wrongly thought that gazing into Shikaku's eyes would be the same as looking at my brother's eyes. It was not. Minato was a kind spirit, always trying to include others and using his intellect for everybody's benefit. Shikaku's assessed your very being, judging its worth. How scary.

He blinked and his posture slouched, "Minato's brother? Thought you were a girl at first glance," he admitted.

My left eyebrow twitched when everybody except the two Nara and Ren lost their composure and went "EH?!". To my deep annoyance, Ren started laughing with no care in the world.

"You – ah – thought Ku – ha – mi-chan was – ah, oh God – a girl?" He managed to ask between snorts. "That's too precious! Ha ha ha!"

My cheeks started burning against my will and I was grateful when Chitarō hit the back of Ren's head to shut him up. Mikoto tried to stutter out an apology while Tsume gathered the longest strands of my hair in her hands, examining it.

"No way," she sniffed, reminding me of her clan. "It smells like vanilla, dude."

Despite the weird action – who the hell smells other persons' hair so casually? – the word 'dude' made me grin. First guy word said to me in this world, really.

Kihito clicked his tongue, "You can stop apologizing now, Mikoto-chan," he tried to calm the smaller child. "It's not your fault Kumi-chan is more girly than anyone else in this room."

"Hey!" I abandoned my embarrassment to rise to my defense.

In the midst of it all stood Shikaku looking absolutely incredulous at the scene. Chitarō was standing beside his brother, snickering. His forehead came up to his older brother's collarbone. The irritating thing was that the top of my head would reach just under his elbow.

"Ren is right, though," the younger of the Nara siblings noted. "Have you guys been thinking that Kumi was a girl all this time? We have known each other for a few weeks already."

To my glee, Mikoto, Kihito and Tsume's cheeks were red from shame. The Sarutobi boy was the first to recover.

"Well, it isn't as if Kumi-chan looks like a boy, you know?" Ah. There comes his tick.

"Yeah, yeah. And everybody calls him Kumi-chan all the freaking time," Tsume was quick to agree.

Ren turned to Chitarō, a grin on his lips, "Ne, do you think everybody in our class thinks of Kumi-chan as a girl?"

Chitarō shrugged, not very worried.

"Probably."

It was my turn to blush again. I looked down, biting my lip. Did it bother me that everybody thought of me as girl? Should it bother me? I mean, at the end of the day, I still have my sixteen-year-old mentality and it sounded silly of me to get upset over it. Which is why I had never been bothered enough to go and cut my hair.

I felt someone patting my head and looked up, expecting Chitarō, but it was his brother. Huh – he probably thought I had gotten disconcerted at my friends' conversation. I turned the corner of my lips up if only to show that everything was okay. That's what I liked about the Naras: they were calm and cared about you if you were their friend.

Suddenly, Mikoto sat in front of me. Her big, black eyes were worried.

"I'm sorry, Kumi-chan," she apologized once more.

I smiled at her, genuinely touched.

"It's okay, Ko-chan," the nickname spilled from my lips before I could stop it. "It really isn't your fault."

"Hey, guys, it stopped raining," Ren excitedly announced. "Who wants to go outside? Chita has some targets in the backyard, we could practice a little!"

"I'm game," Tsume agreed, quickly following the dirty-blond boy to the backdoor.

Kihito sighed, murmuring something akin to 'Someone has to control those hooligans, you know'. Shikaku excused himself without much ceremony while Chitarō came closer to me and Mikoto, offering a hand to haul each of us up.

"You'd think it is Ren's house with the way he's so comfortable," the Nara boy drawled. "Troublesome."

Mikoto and I shared a smiled. For all that Chitarō complained, Ren was his best friend no matter what and it was obvious in their interactions. With a light heart, I entered the backyard with new friends.

It was good to feel wanted.